To meet the availability demands for base stations in mobile communication systems, even in case of power outage, a backup power source, for example a battery system, is needed. However, due to base stations sometimes being located remotely and not always being staffed, it is difficult to prevent battery theft. Theft may prove costly and affect the availability of the site using the batteries.
Previously known anti-theft systems for batteries include GPS-based systems for batteries in base stations. In those anti-theft systems, a GPS-tracker is employed to track stolen batteries and to trigger an alarm in case a battery is outside of a specific area.
One specific problem with this type of system is that the GPS might be non-functional or jammed in some way, and then an alarm will not be triggered. The GPS also requires an unimpeded channel for the satellites to work. Further, GPS might not work inside a building.
Another problem with alarms is that they do not prevent theft as such. Instead, they only make the risk of discovery larger for a thief. If the thief would get past the alarm system, the batteries are still attractive to steal.
The above mentioned problems lead to drawbacks such as existing anti-theft systems not being as reliable and not as fault tolerant as desired. They may also not prevent theft to the extent desired.